Contribution short abstract

Socio-ecological synthesis of the Upper Guinean Forests of West Africa: painful histories, contested tenure, and crisis framings meet extractive–conservation agendas; sacred groves and African Dark Earths reveal resilient, locally governed pathways that could be replicated for just forest futures.

Contribution long abstract

My roundtable contribution would draw on an invited multi-author review of the Upper Guinean Forests of West Africa (UGFWA), commissioned by the Annual Review of Environment and Resources. Spanning six countries, the UGFWA is a globally significant biodiversity hotspot with high levels of endemism, yet as a region remains comparatively under-studied. For decades, the UGFWA’s ecological history was obscured by faulty statistics and narratives that downplayed human stewardship. Our socio-ecological synthesis charts the UGFWA’s historical and contemporary forest dynamics, while foregrounding structural drivers of degradation and locally-led ‘bright spots’ which offer credible foundations for more just forest futures. A key debate we surface is how crisis framings legitimise policy arrangements in which conservation and extraction are pursued simultaneously, often at the expense of local tenure and decision-making. Colonial-era scientific forestry cast local land use as both unproductive and destructive, justifying exclusionary control over valuable resources. Today, poverty-centred deforestation narratives overlook these legacies and structural wounds, thereby normalising the convergence of conservation and extraction in climate-capital policies.

Crucially, the review does not reduce the UGFWA to crisis. Despite commodity expansion and climate stress, we highlight resilience and locally-led innovation. Sacred groves and customary land and tree tenure exemplify centuries-old biodiversity governance. While African Dark Earths and place-based agro-ecologies demonstrate enduring biodiversity conservation that can inform land and soil restoration; food security; and emergent socio-bioeconomy strategies, even amid neoliberal pressures and ongoing coloniality. I will use these insights to invite discussion on just, locally mandated, and politically feasible West African forest futures.